A blog devoted to Montessori education with a little bit of this and that thrown in.

January 05, 2009

Arctic Iceberg activity

We will be reading about and studying life in the arctic this month. So I decided to set up an arctic playset for the children. I think they will love this. First, I bought an Arctic TOOB at Hobby Lobby. I think it was a few dollars cheaper at Hobby Lobby than at the Amazon link I've added. In addition to these figures, I have frozen some "icebergs" in various bowls to add to this work.

I have this set up on my stationary shelf. This means the activity will stay put and the children will stand to play with it. They won't transport it from another shelf to a table. I have a little bowl of arctic figures and a large white tray which represents the "arctic". To do this work, the child will ask the teacher for the iceberg (which will be kept in the freezer until requested). They can do this work with a friend or alone. They must keep the iceberg on the tray so it doesn't get the floor wet or break if dropped on the floor. I am planning to add a small hand towel to dry hands as well as the table surrounding the playset.

Here's a close-up of the arctic play figures. These TOOB sets are made by Safari, Ltd., and they are very nicely made, in my opinion. My boys at home have several different versions of them.

Here's a close-up of one of the "icebergs". I used several different sized bowls so we'll have a variety to choose from. I can't wait to see how the children respond to this work.